A prosecution filing to amend several counts has the victims’ names redacted. (John Ingold, The Denver Post)

Story lengths being inherently finite, the article in today’s newspaper about the most recent hearing in the court case against accused Aurora movie theater killer James Holmes didn’t have room for one of the big debates from the hearing.

Prosecutors in the case are seeking to remove the names of the shooting victims from the public record. Defense attorneys agree they should be removed. Several media organizations, including The Denver Post, are asking the judge to deny the prosecution’s request.

The original documents in the case, made public July 30, listed the names of the 12 people who died in the theater and 58 others who were injured. Since then, prosecutors have filed additional charges that have redacted the names, and have also filed a motion (PDF) to redact the names from the original document.

Lisa Teesch-Maguire, the prosecution’s victims’ rights specialist, said the redactions are necessary to protect victims from harassment and intimidation. Some victims, she said, have been subject to torment online from people not connected to the media. One victim had an unauthorized motion filed in her name with the court. And Dr. Lynne Fenton, Holmes’ one-time psychiatrist, is so afraid for her safety that she has not been living in her own house, Teesch-Maguire said.

Teesch-Maguire also said victims are fearful of media harassment — she alleged helicopters hovering over victims’ houses to take pictures of children — but did not cite specific incidents or specific outlets involved. (It goes without saying that The Denver Post possesses no such helicopter and, even if we did, we would put it to better use.)

(UPDATE: A rush transcript of the Supreme Court arguments on Stolen Valor is now available.)

But the outcome of the arguments will test an intriguing theory suggested in data newly crunched by the Journal of Legal Metrics. As reported earlier this month by the federal appellate-analysis blog Circuit Splits, the new figures look at how often during its October 2010 term the Supreme Court sided with a circuit court’s position — regardless of whether that circuit’s case was the one before the high court. The journal calls this a “Parallel Affirmance Rate.”

When the numbers are run, the 10th Circuit’s positions were affirmed 100 percent of the time — better than any other circuit in the land. The average was 64 percent. The Washington, D.C., circuit — often seen as a training ground for Supreme Court justices — was a worst-in-the-nation 33 percent.

Congressman Jared Polis, D-Boulder, had the chance yesterday to ask the nation’s top cop the kind of questions people in Colorado’s medical-marijuana community have been asking for years. The answers he got back from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, though, didn’t exactly clarify the issue.

During a hearing of the U.S. House’s Judiciary Committee — one that focused largely on the Justice Department’s maligned Fast and Furious gun-smuggling investigation — Polis questioned Holder about the DOJ’s policy on enforcing federal marijuana law in medical-marijuana states in light of two somewhat perplexing memos. Holder explained his department’s policy thusly:

What we said in the memo, we still intend, which is that, given the limited resources that we have — and if there are states that have medical-marijuana provisions and if you take into account the Cole memo — if in fact people are not using the policy decision that we have made to use marijuana in a way that is not consistent with the state statute, we will not use our limited resources in that way.

Police and protesters confront each other during a clash in Civic Center Park

As we wait for U.S. District Court Judge Robert Blackburn to make his ruling on Occupy Denver’s request for a temporary restraining order, I thought I could share a few extra nuggets that emerged during yesterday’s nearly 8-hour proceedings. (See my story in today’s paper about the hearing for an overview of the legal debate, plus a mention of Denver police officers who allegedly set up a fake Twitter account to harass Occupy Denver members.)

Who’s in charge?
It wasn’t surprising to see Occupy Denver supporters, under questioning on the witness stand, hedge on whether to call themselves leaders of the protest. After all, the movement prides itself on being non-hierarchical. But, it turns out, Occupy Denver isn’t the only organization out at Civic Center Park that gives its members a lot of autonomy. Denver Police Division Chief David Quinones testified that the decisions on how to enforce the city ordinances in dispute are ultimately left up to the officers on the ground. Quinones repeatedly rebutted the suggestion that the city had a detailed policy on how to respond to Occupy Denver. “They have a lot of discretion,” Quinones said of the officers. Quinones also said he had not received any orders from Police Chief Gerry Whitman on how to deal with the movement. “I kept him apprised of what was happening,” Quinones said.

How long will it last?
As commenters in a previous post of mine about Occupy Denver noted, one thing that differentiates the protest from other events is the duration. While other protests might also trample some city ordinances, they also have an expected end date. Meanwhile, it’s not clear when Occupy Denver members might decide to pack up camp. Assistant city attorney Stuart Shapiro tried to draw out that distinction when cross-examining the day’s first witness, Occupy Denver supporter Tanner Spendley. Shapiro pressed Spendley several times on how long the movement intended to stay in the park. Spendley, who had earlier said the movement would be in the park “a long time,” ultimately ducked the question.

Occupy Denver protester Roshan Bliss participates in a rally outside the Denver City and County Building earlier this month

Denver city officials have hit back forcefully in federal court against a lawsuit filed by Occupy Denver protesters, saying the protesters’ complaints of free-speech violations are “entirely devoid of any factual support.”

In the city’s official response to Occupy Denver’s lawsuit, assistant city attorney Karla Pierce argues that Denver officials have gone out of their way to allow protesters to exercise their free speech rights — including allowing protesters to hold multiple, unpermitted marches — and have applied the city’s laws consistently. Pierce denies that city leaders are trying to shut down the movement, which is now more than two months old.

“Denver’s enforcement of its ordinances has complied with constitutional requirements,” Pierce writes in the response (PDF). “As a result, numerous peaceful, law abiding persons have been able to freely exercise their constitutional rights since the inception of the Occupy Denver movement.”

Seven Occupy Denver participants and sympathizers filed the lawsuit last week, contending that Denver’s actions in enforcing city ordinances against supporters of the movement amount to a violation of First Amendment rights and an unlawful attempt to close down the protest. Specifically, Occupy Denver referenced two incidents of people being ticketed for honking a horn in support of the movement as they drove by and another in which a man was ticketed for stopping briefly at the curb to give a knit hat to a protester. The lawsuit (PDF) also complains about police use of a right-of-way ordinance to keep protesters from placing items on the sidewalk and of a park curfew law.

Like Occupy Denver, Sniagrab — the annual pre-season ski gear sale at Sports Authority — features people (ostensibly, at least) sleeping on the sidewalk. It also features something Occupy Denver protesters have been denied: tents pitched on the sidewalk.

Denver officials have blocked the protesters from erecting tents by saying that tents would violate the city’s ordinance against sidewalk encumbrances. Occupy Denver protesters contend that preventing them from erecting tents violates their free-speech rights, not only because the tents are important to continuing their protest, but also because the tents themselves are a form of speech. Protesters — who, after all, have “occupy” right in the name — say the tents symbolize their commitment to take back what belongs to the public. The method of habitation is the message.

LEADING OFF:The Washington Post reports on the return of Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos, who was kidnapped on Wednesday while visiting his family in Venezuela. The 24-year-old spent 50 hours in captivity before he was found in Montalban in central Venezuela Friday night, where authorities and his kidnappers exchanged gun fire before his rescue. Details about why Ramos was abducted and how he was freed are still unclear.

Mixed in with the tweets from YourAnonNews and enterblisstonia in the #OccupyDenver Twitter stream this morning were brief bursts from a familiar name. He sought granola and provisions for the protestors. He joined in the outrage over rumors of fire extinguishers filled with mace and posted encouragement for fellow demonstrators.

Then – as others waved placards at passing cars – a scruffy faced man hoisted a neon orange tent emblazoned with “99%” over his head and began pacing the sidewalk shouting slogans.

Now he’s out protesting under his own name and appears to be publicly confronting mental illness, addiction and “a reputation ruined by (his) own misdeeds” in this blog post linked to the Rick Strandlof Twitter profile.

Occupy protesters stay in front of the line of Denver Police officers at the corner of 14th Ave and Broadway in downtown Denver on Saturday.

The Occupy Denver march that peacefully led about 2,000 people through downtown Denver Saturday afternoon slowly began to dismantle into a crowd standing toe-to-toe with officers in riot gear.

Around noon, a diverse crowd gathered in Civic Center where the mood was cordial and the talk upbeat. In a shady spot under a group of trees, people drafted crude signs on the back of old design sheets, others dropped off professional banners stretching eight feet and listing websites.

Missy Berglundy brought her two young daughters to the march.

“I want my girls to learn they are able to do something to create change,” Berglundy said.

STRIKE THREE: The Los Angeles Times continues to follow the story of the man accused of killing eight people and wounding one at a Seal Beach beauty salon. The defendant, Scott Dekraai, made his first court appearance on Friday, during which prosecutors announced they will seek the death penalty. As tensions continue to grow between authorities and Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York City, The New York Times takes a look at the bankers, who say they are misunderstood by the protesters. The Chicago Tribune reports on cabdrivers with multiple traffic convictions who are still cursing the streets of Chicago with passengers in the back.